Opalescent detergent composition



OPALESCENT DETERGENT COMPOSITION Anthony M. Schwartz, Washington, D.C., assignor to The Gillette Company, Boston, Mass, a corporation of Delaware No Drawing. Application June 21, 1956 Serial'No. 592,740

9 Claims. c1. 252-152 This invention relates to hair shampoo and pertains more specifically to an improved pearly opalcscent shampoo having a nacreous luster. 7

It has hitherto been proposed to provide a shampoo having a pearly appearance. However, there has been a problem in providing such a shampoo having all of the desired characteristics of stability and excellent foaming and detergent properties.

One object of the present invention is to provide a pearly shampoo which has a nacreous luster, substantially permanent in character," tending neither to become discolored nor to separate into discrete layers upon stand- Another object is to provide a-pearly shampoo having excellent foaming and detergent characteristics in both hard and soft water.

Still another object is to'provide a pearling agent the addition of which to a conventional shampoo does not interfere substantially with the foaming and detergent characteristics thereof and has no appreciable effect on the fiow characteristics thereof.

A further object is to provide a pearling agent for aqueous shampoo compositions which exhibits substantially no change in particle size and no crystalline growth characteristics after dispersion in the shampoo.

Still a further object is to provide a pearling agent for aqueous shampoo compositions which is adapted for use in shampoos over a wide pH range.

Other and further objects will be apparent from the description which follows.

It has been found that the foregoing objects can be attained by providing an aqueous shampoo composition containing a conventional surface active agent or synthetic organic detergent and dispersed therein a finely divided solid monoamide or diamide whose acid residue or residues are monocarboxylic having an aliphatic straight or branched chain length of 2 to' 24 carbon atoms and whose amine residue each contains an amino nitrogen atom bonded directly to a nuclear carbon atom of an aromatic ring or rings, the remaining valences of each amino nitrogen atom being satisfied by hydrogen or a hydrocarbon group containing from 1 to carbon atoms. These amides are those having the structure if R-G-N Ar R n in which R' is an aliphatic straight or branched chain hydrocarbon radical having-from 1 to 23 carbon atoms, R is hydrogen or an aliphatic straight or branched chain hydrocarbon radical having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, n is 1 or 2 and Ar is-a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic radical. Examples of the aromatic radical are phenyl, diphenyl, diphenylether, diphenylmcthane, naphatent a 2,891,912 Patented June 23,

in which R is an open chain aliphatic hydrocarbon group having from 1 to 23 carbon atoms, R is hydrogen or an open .chain aliphatic hydrocarbon group having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, and R is anaromatic carbocyclic radical having the free valence on a r in'g can bon atom. Particularly preferred are those amides in which the acid portion of the molecule is a fatty acid having from 2 to 24 carbon atoms and in which R' is hydrogen or an alkyl group having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms. v I

These aromatic amides which function as satisfactory pearling agents have a melting point substantially above room temperature, generally above 45 C. and preferably above 55 C. V I p p The acid component of the amide may be any open chain aliphatic monocarboxylic acid having the structure R-COOH in which R is a straight or branched chain, substituted or unsubstituted, saturated or unsaturated aliphatic radical having from 1 to 23 carbon atoms; among the suitable acids are acetic, propionic, butyric, 2-ethylhexoic, capric, crotonic, caproic, caprylic, lauric, myristic, stearic, palmitic, oleic, tetracosanic and similar acids.

The aromatic amine component of the amide contains an aromatic radical, preferably an aromatic carbocyclic radical, in'which the amino nitrogen atom is bonded'di rectly to a nuclear carbon atom; Both mononuclear and polynuclear aromatic amines are effective' While the primary aromatic amines are preferred, secondary aromatic amines are also satisfactory in which one'of the amino hydrogen atoms is replaced by anopen chain aliphatic hydrocarbon group containing from 1 to .10 carbon atoms, preferably an alkyl group. The aromatic nucleus may contain one or more substituent groups in addition to the amino group, among which are alkyl, alkoxy, aryloxy, and aralkyl substituents containing from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, halogen atoms such as bromine, chlorine, etc. Preferably the aromatic radical is free from' hydroxy or sulfonic acid substituents which tend to increase the water solubility of the resultant amide. Among satisfactory aromatic amine components are aniline; 0-, mor p-toluidine; o-, mor p-anisidine; omor p-phenetidine; o-, mor p-chloroaniline; o-, mor p-aminobiphenyh' o-, mor p-aminodiphenyl ether; p,p-diamino diphenyl ether; l-amino-Z-neiphthol methyl ether; o-toluidine; o,o'-dianisidinc; and the like.

Aromatic amides within the scope of the present in; vention may be made from any combination of the foregoing acids and amines.

The amides can be prepared by any conventional method such as by reacting the appropriate aromatic amine with the appropriate a cid chloride or acid ester. The amidesm'ay be employed as pearling agents either individually or in admixture with one or more other amides of the same class. i

The aqueous shampoo compositions in which the aromatic amide pearling agents of the present invention may be satisfactorily employed contain a wide varietyof surface active agents or synthetic organic detergents, including cationic active, anionic active, non-ionic and amphoteric surface active agents as 'well as mixtures thereof with each other. Among those which 'havebeen' found to 3 e) be effective are the alkyl sulfates such as sodium lauryl sulfate and diethanolamine lauryl sulfate as well as mixtures of triethanolamine lauryl sulfate with coco-diethanolamide condensate, amphoteric surface active agents such as the sodium salt of dodecyl beta-alanine, 5

taurides such as the sodium salt of coco-methyl tauride, alkyl aryl sulfonates such as the triethanolamine salt of dodecyl benzene sulfonate, the sarcosides, the fatty imidazolines, non-ionic surface active agents such as the polyglycol ethers of alkyl phenols and the like.

The shampoo composition may contain one or more of the foregoing surface active agents as an active detergent in a wide range of proportions; usually it will contain from 10% to 40% by weight of active detergent based on the weight of the total shampoo composition, prefer- It is essential, of course, that the amide of extremely fine solid crystals of the amide by cooling the mixture with stirring, the finely divided or particulate solid amide being maintained in dispersed form by reason of the surface active agent. In one preferred embodiment the concentration of the solid amide is just above its solubility point in the aqueous solution of the surface active agent.

The following specific examples are intended to illustrate more clearly the nature of the invention without limiting the scope thereof.

Example 1 To 100 parts by weight of an aqueous solution containing 15 parts by weight of the sodium salt of sulfated nonylphenol polyglycol ether (Alipal C0433) heated to 70 C. there was added 2 parts of palmitic p-anisidide,

and the mixture was stirred until the anisidide was completely dissolved (solubilized in the mixture). The resultant solution was then cooled while stirring continuously. On cooling to room temperature, extremely fine crystals of the anisidide deposited out of solution and a stable pearly opalescent appearance was imparted to the mixture. On standing over a prolonged period of time, no further crystal growth occurred. The resulting shampoo was found to have excellent foaming and detergent characteristics, being substantially equivalent in these respect to the shampoo prior to the addition of the anisidide. In addition, the pearly opalescent shampoo had much the same fiow characteristics as did the shampoo prior to the addition of the anisidide, although a minor change could be detected. The nacreous luster of the shampoo underwent no apparent change even on standing for long periods of time and exhibited no tendency to be come discolored.

Additional formulations were made using the same technique as employed in Example 1. The compositions of these are listed in the examples that follow.

Example 2 Parts Triethanolamine lauryl sulfate 15 Water 82 Capric anilide 3 Example 3 Sodium lauryl sulfate 15 Water 83 Lauric anilide 2 4 Example 5 Parts Sodium salt of coco-methyl tauride 15 Water 84 Capric anilide 1 Example 6 Triethanolamine salt of dodecyl benzene sulfonate (Ultrawet 60L) 15 Water 82 Lauric anilide 3 Example 7 Triethanolamine salt of dodecyl benzene sulfonate (Ultrawet 60L) 15 Water 83 Palrnitic anilide 2 Example 8 Triethanolamine salt of dodecyl benzene sulfonate (Ultrawet 60L) 15 Water 82 Stearic anilide 3 Example9 Triethanolamine salt of dodecyl benzene sulfonate (Ultrawet 60L) 15 Water 82 Lauric p-anisidide 3 Example 10 Triethanolamine salt of dodecyl benzene sulfonate (Ultrawet 60L) 15 Water 84 Myristic p-anisidide 1 Example 11 A mixture of parts triethanolamine lauryl sulfate and 20 parts coco-diethanolamide condensate 15 Water 82 Acetyl p-amino diphenyl 3 Example 12 Triethanolamine lauryl sulfate 15 Water 83 Acetyl p-amino diphenyl 2 Example 13 A mixture of 80 parts triethanolamine lauryl sulfate and 20 parts coco-diethanolamide condensate 15 Water 82 Di-acetyl benzidine 3 Example 14 Triethanolamine lauryl sulfate 15 Water 84 Di-acetyl benzidine 1 Example 15 A mixture of 80 parts triethanolamine lauryl sulfate and 20 parts coco-diethanolamide condensate 15 Water 83 Di-acetyl p,p'-diaminodiphenyl ether 2 Example 16 Triethanolamine lauryl sulfate 15 Water 82 Di-acetyl p,p-diarninodiphenyl ether 3 Example 17 Sodium salt of dodecyl beta-alanine (Coco-Deriphat) 15 Water 82 Di-acetyl p,p-diaminodiphenyl ether 3 Example 18 Parts Sodium salt of sulfated nonylphenol polyethylene glycol ether (Alipal 00-433) 15 Water 84 Di-acetyl p,p'-diaminodiphenyl ether 1 Example 19 A mixture of 80 parts triethanolamine lauryl sulfate and 20 parts coco-diethanolamide condensate 15 Water 82 Caproyl alpha-naphthylamine 3 Example 20 Sodium lauryl sulfate 15 Water 84 Laurie p-anisidide 1 Example 21 Sodium salt of sulfated nonylphenol polyethylene glycol ether (Alipal CO-433) 15 Water 83 Laurie p-anisidide 2 Example 22 Triethanolamine lauryl sulfate 15 Water 82 Laurie anilide 3 Example 23 Sodium salt of sulfated nonylphenol polyethylene glycol ether (Alipal CO-433) 15 Water 82 Laurie anilide 3 Example 24 Sodium salt of dodecyl beta-alanine (Coco-Deriphat) 15 Water 83 Palmitic anilide 2 In each of the foregoing examples the pH of the shampoo composition was simply that obtained by dissolving the specified ingredients in water and ranged from about 3 to about 9, depending upon the particular surface active agent present. Despite this wide variation in pH, however, the aromatic amide pearling agent was found to function satisfactorily in each case without any apparent separation or discoloration occurring even after standing for long periods of time. Each of the shampoos of these examples had excellent foaming and detergent characteristics and all of them had satisfactory flow properties. The results were satisfactory even when the shampoo was employed with hard water.

It will be understood that in addition to the specified ingredients, the shampoos of the present invention may include any of the usual additives such as a high viscosity former, e.g., methylcellulose, perfumes, preservatives, dyes, germicides, foam builders, and other modifying agents. It will also be understood that a variety of conventional water-miscible organic solvents such as ethanol, isopropanol, glycerol, or the like may also be present in the compositions in addition to water.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described herein, it is not intended to limit the invention solely thereto, but to include all of the obvious variations and modifications Within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A pearly opalescent shampoo composition consisting essentially of an aqueous solution containing from 10% to 40% by weight of a synthetic organic detergent and dispersed therein from 1% to 20% by weight of a finely divided solid compound of the class consisting of the amides and diamides whose acid residues are monocarboxylic having an aliphatic chain length of 2 to 24 carbon atoms and whose amine residues each contains an amino nitrogen atom bonded directly to a nuclear carbon atom of an aromatic hydrocarbon radical, the remaining valences of each amino nitrogen atom being satisfied by hydrogen.

2. A pearly shampoo as defined in claim 1 in which the solid amide has a concentration just above its solubility point within said detergent mixture.

3. A pearly shampoo as defined in claim 1 in which said amide comprises an anilide of a fatty acid having from 2 to 24 carbon atoms.

4. A pearly shampoo as defined in claim 1 in which the aromatic amine component of said amide is mononuclear.

5. A pearly shampoo as defined in claim 1 in which the aromatic amine component of said amide is polynuclear.

6. A pearly shampo as defined in claim 4 in which said amine component is p-anisidine.

7. A pearly shampoo as defined in claim 5 in which said amine component is benzidine.

8. A pearly shampoo as defined in claim 5 in which said amine component is p,p'-diaminodiphenyl ether.

9. A pearly shampoo as defined in claim 5 in which said amine component is p-aminobiphenyl.

Schwartz and Perry: Surface Active Agents, Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York (1949), page 26. 

1. A PEARLY OPALESCENT SHAMPOO COMPOSITION CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF AN AQUEOUS SOLUTION CONTAINING FROM 10% TO 40% BY WEIGHT OF A SYNTHETIC ORGANIC DETERGENT AND DISPERSED THERIN FROM 1% TO 20% BY WEIGHT OF A FINELY DIVIDED SOLID COMPOUND OF THE CLASS CONSISTING OF THE AMIDES AND DIAMIDES WHOSE ACID RESIDU ARE MONOCARBOXYLIC HAVING AN ALIPHATIC CHAIN LENGHT OF 2 TO 24 CARBON ATOMS AND WHOSE AMINE RESIDUES EACH CONTAINS AN AMINO NITROGEN ATOM BOUNDED DIRECTLY TO A NUCLEAR CARBON ATOM OF AN AROMATIC HYDROCARBON RADICAL, THE REMAINING VALENCES, OF EACH AMINO NITROGEN ATOM BEING SATISFIED BY HYDROGEN. 